Age-old Bush Remedy: Indigenous burn-offs are helping make Australia more fire-safe.

Indigenous burn-offs are helping make Australia more fire-safe.

Writing in the Victorian ‘Weekly Times’ newspaper of 16 December, 2020, journalist Brett Ellis wrote that ‘Indigenous fire management will improve the health and safety of the land’.

This is a topic that has been referred on in various forums over recent years. In the same edition of the ‘Weekly Times’. Peter Hunt reported that “Landcare groups and the Victorian Opposition are embracing Aboriginal cultural burning as a means of reviving bushland and curbing fuel loads on private and public land………………a key part [of cultural burning] is making sure there’s enough moisture in the soil to keep the fire cool, so it just burns the leaf litter and grass thatch. The flame is no more than 30cm high. These burns will knock out the smaller shrubs and push them back into the gullies, where they belong. Lack of fire means they keep spreading ……ultimately…cultural burns boosted grass growth, while protecting the tree canopy…………The devastating impact of last summer’s bushfire highlighted the need to better manage our landscape and undertake more targeted fuel reduction burns,,”

In view of that type of comment, I believe it’s worthwhile to take note of the views of people like Brett Ellis, who himself is a fire & emergency management consultant and director at Firestick Alliance Indigenous Corporation. Admittedly, he is really only using one principal example to demonstrate his arguments, and to my reading, leaves the question a little ‘up in the air’, and he is certainly speaking from an Indigenous viewpoint – though in recent years, his voice has not been a sole call from that area. Bruce Pascoe’s book ‘Dark Emu’ [which I have previously covered in this column] – a book much maligned in some quarters  –  devotes a chapter to the use of ‘fire’ and it’s use by Indigenous communities. He makes the point, noted by Ellis below that “within years of Aboriginal people being prevented from operating their traditional fire regimes, the countryside was overwhelmed by understorey species” [p. 164].

So, from the article by Brett Ellis,  we read the following considerations about the topic..

“Australian scientific earth core sampling suggests that the mega fire ceased  about 8,000 years ago signifying that fire lore, customs and practices had established a balance  between man, flora and fauna.

Using the ‘right fire’, Aborigines maintained the balance of country and as such enabled themselves  and all living things to survive and thrive.

More than 200 years ago that balance was interrupted. Aboriginal fire lore was broken, fire practices were ceased and the landscape changed due to vegetation clearance and uncontrolled hot bushfires.

Unfortunately, Aboriginal fire lore is still being broken. Our country is sick.. Current land and fire management practices are compounding this issue with increasing larger and more frequent devastating and costly mega fires the future for Australia.

Western fire and land management practices are continuing to destroy  the sacred canopy and dry out the environment. With climate change, the need for healthy canopy and under-storey will be essential to assist the environment to remain cool and resilient with increasing temperatures.

Aboriginals have dealt with climate change before and ensuring fire lore and practices are reinstated will provide the needed protection and management to allow the environment to be prepared and protected.

Unfortunately, much of the ancient knowledge of fire methodologies, lore and practices have been lost, especially in southeast Australia.

We are still fortunate that pockets of intact knowledge remain in other parts of the continent from which to rebuild important knowledge.

Having worked in strategic fire and emergency management roles at local and state government levels, I have been challenged in the past trying to balance the competing views of burning and protection of the bush. I now know Indigenous fire knowledge and methodology is the key to balancing that tension and improving the health and safety of our landscapes.

Over the past five years I have had the good fortune of working with Aboriginal elders and knowledge holders who have spent many days at our property as part of an Indigenous fire and land management trial site. The Yarra Valley property was severely affected by Black Saturday bushfires and has a 40/40 split of pasture and recovering native vegetation.

Under the guidance of one of Australia’s best known leading Indigenous fire practitioners, Victor Stefferson, and alongside Wurundjeri elder Uncle David Wandin, we have applied the right fire on the right country at the right time. And the landscape is showing the benefits.

The addition of Indigenous fire into the system is producing an increased presence of native vegetation, stronger presence of kangaroo grass, wallaby grass and many native herbs, foods, medicines and orchids. This has been seen in the paddocks as well as under the tree canopy as strengthened native plants outcompete introduced grasses. Every area where we have applied the right fire, we have seen improvement in diversity of vegetation and wildlife.  The locations are staying greener, healthier and stronger through summer”.